Hail Super Doc

This year's Embassy world championship was one
of the most exciting for years,
from start to finish we had the lot, upsets, a maximum from
Ronnie, and an
unlikely but brilliant champion in
Ken Doherty. This is where regular
readers
will know that I am permitted to say I told you so!! I did predict that
Hendry
would not win the title this year. Mind you, I really thought it would have
been Ronnie in the final. Ronnie for me is the most exciting of all the
players. He plays with an abandonment that no other player has ever had.
Added to this he produces shots many can only dream of. I have seen Ronnie grow
up from a young boy playing in smoke filled snooker rooms. Although he lost to
Morgan he still had a big year, in fact he had a very big year. Ronnie has had
to cope with so much at such a young age. Many would have broken down and given
in, and to be honest there were times that he did come very close. But unlike
the Alex Higgins and George Best's of this world he held it together and came
through. I know he still has a long road ahead but if he continues to keep fit
and work hard then the outlook for him and snooker is bright. The maximum break
he made against poor Mick Price was fantastic, it was brilliant as it was
simple. It probably was the most perfect max I have ever witnessed. Never out
of position and never in doubt, in fact this was a maximum which Ronnie might
have been playing in practice. That is what makes him so exciting to watch, to
the uneducated watching a match for the first time they would never have guessed
that there was L147,000 + L15,000 for the highest break resting on that one
break. Keep up the good work Ronnie!!

The big surprise of the tournament had to be Ian Walker. I have seen Ian play, in
fact he beat Mark King in a qualifier once. I never would have guessed that he
could have gone on to produce such solid snooker. Of course he is a good player
but it takes an extremely good player to succeed at the high altar of snooker.
Mind you if you have never been to the crucible I am sure you like everyone else
thinks the arena is huge, but it is quite small really and the crowd are so
close to the table they can almost touch it. The crucible has the habit of
either making players who arrive as strong favourites disappear without note, or
making outsiders suddenly realise why they have been practicing for so many
years. The conquerer of Ian Walker in the quarter finals was one of my personal
favourites, Alain Robidoux. Alain
has so much class, and to be honest when he
arrived some years ago I really thought he would make it big, but then he seemed
to lose his way and he came very close to dropping out of the 32. Now though
he is like a man on a mission trying to make up for the lost years. He had a
marvellous championship, only to be denied by Hendry in the semi. Funny I seem
to remember a match some years ago in a world championships when Alain was at
his best and he was playing Hendry in the first round I think, and he seemed to
have the beating of the young scot, when the referee (I forget who) called a
push shot against Alain, of course it was never a push shot and it upset Alain
who lost his composure and lost the match. From that moment on he struggled in
every tournament. Funny how one event can trigger a downturn in someones
fortune.

I say it was a shock Ken winning the World Title but I suppose it was only
really a shock because Hendry did not (except to my readers). Ken is a truly
great player and probably has the best record against Hendry. With this in mind
I ventured to the bookmaker and placed a sum on Ken to beat Hendry in the final.
Hendry though seemed to not be firing on all cylinders like a man who was
somewhere other than in the crucible, perhaps he was at home with his wife and
family counting all his gold. Maybe he just got tired of winning year after
year. Of course even if Hendry had played better there would be no guarantees he
would have won but there was something troubling our former King. For Ken this
was an acheivement he could have only dreamed of, only the second person in
history from overseas to wrestle away the crown of the best player on the
planet. Back home he was recieved with such joy from not just his army of fans
but from the whole country who shared in his joy. I for one can tell you that
Ken is one person who will not be phased by all of the success, I am sure if
anyone who knows him meets him tomorrow they would be greeted with the same warm
and genuine person as before he became the new champion.

The coming season should be very interesting, we have more young players coming
through than ever before and with Ronnie playing so well and our new champion we
have a lot to be grateful for. Let us hope that Mr Rex Williams the new
chairman of the WPBSA can at last lay to rest the turmoil which has gone on in
the past boards of the WPBSA. For me allowing Rex Williams to head snookers
ruling body is like taking a giant backwards step. Mr Williams is a man from
the past who to be honest did not have an exactly glowing hisory as the former
chairman, indeed the only difference this time is that he seems to be a puppet
controlled by Ian Doyle. I feel this is quite dangerous to place so much power
in the hands of one man, however the rumours around snooker prior to the sacking
of the old board was that they had to get rid of the old board to allow new
sponsors to come in. Apparently the old board was politically wrong and would
not bring in new sponsors. Well now it is time to see wether we will have these
new sponsors, and believe me we will need them as with the new labour goverment
banning all tobacco advertising it will be very hard for snooker to keep the
level of funding it has enjoyed to date. Indeed if it were not for Embassy and
Benson and Hedges, snooker would be in desperate trouble. Let us hope that all
the hype surrounding the new board bears fruit and we get all of the new
sponsors.

To those of you who have written and not recieved a reply I am sorry as I have
ben away but I am going through my e-mail now and will reply to you all. Please
keep writing as I love to hear from you all.

Regards

Richard Fountain

The Fountain is a column written by Richard Fountain from England. He is
an ex snooker coach and used to be the manager
of Mark King. He will be writing to you
throughout the snooker year and will try to give you all the inside info on this great game.
Please feel free to
write him <richfo@globalnet.com.uk> with
any questions you may have.